Other Words from metathesis

metathetical\ˌme-​tə-​ˈthe-​ti-​kəl\ or metathetic\-​tik\adjective

metathetically\-​ti-​k(ə-​)lē\adverb

Did You Know?

One familiar example of metathesis is our word thrill, which was "thyrlian" in Old English and "thirlen" in Middle English. By the late 16th century, native English speakers had switched the placement of the "r" to form "thrill." Another example is the alteration of "curd" into "crud" (the earliest sense of which was, unsurprisingly, "curd"). It probably won't surprise you to learn that the origin of "metathesis" lies in the idea of transposition - the word was borrowed into English in the mid-16th century and derives, via Late Latin, from the Greek verb metatithenai, meaning "to transpose."